Shopping is a bit of a relaxing hobby for me, which is sometimes troubling for the bank balance.

Monthly Archives: October 2017

A shopping mall changes the experience of shopping into more of a day out than simply a trip to the shops.

Shopping malls will also make the shopping experience a lot more convenient as there are many different types of shops all available under one roof, there is also more spaces to fit these shops as most shopping malls are multi-storey.

Doing your shopping indoors can also be more pleasant than shopping outside, as the weather may make the journey from one shop to another unpleasant. If for example it’s raining heavily outside or it’s too hot, a shopping mall can provide the perfect environment in which to do your shopping. These malls are often air-conditioned so are often very peasant places to visit in very hot countries where heat exhaustion and sunburn can be a very real problem, particularly for elder people, the very young and people who may come from abroad and are not used to the hot climate.

A shopping mall is also an ideal place to own a shop as there’s a lot of foot traffic and people who might happen across your shop that might not have otherwise. In a shopping mall your shop is on display, whereas if you were located in a side street, away from the town centre you may experience a lack of potential customers. Being located in a shopping mall may mean that the lease for the shop is more expensive, but it will more than be paid back by the massive increase in foot traffic.

If you are doing your shopping in a mall, you may also notice that there are often places where you can eat, this allows you to take a break from shopping and enjoy a nice meal while you at it. Many of these food stores are very popular franchises who make food people know and love for a bargain price. As well as food vendors, there are often coffee shops for people who just want to sit and enjoy a nice cup of coffee whilst they take a break. The food and coffee shops are an ideal place to sit and wait for someone you may be meeting, or take a moment to consider items you have viewed before you go back and commit to a purchase.

Some indoor shopping establishments also contain well equipped Cinemas featuring the latest 3D Imax technology and the latest Hollywood movies. Some shopping malls also contain bars for people who may like an alcoholic drink or a game of pool.

Some places may even feature entertainment which is laid on for the customer such as, musicians or street performers who can entertain crowds of people and also draw in additional foot traffic to the nearby shops.

So to sum it up, shopping malls are for more than just shopping, they are a place where you can have a good day out and see many sights you may not see elsewhere, they also provide protection from the environment and the convenience of having many shops together in close proximity to each other, reducing the amount of walking that has to be done.

Shopping is more than just a hobby. It is a way of indulging on a foreign culture, while sufficing the typical desire to just spend money for nice things to bring home. Whether people come to places on cheap tours or first-class flights, shopping is certainly a common denominator for travelers.
Around the world, there are many shopping paradises. But among the endless choices are ten cities topping the list. They are as follows:

1. Madrid

First and foremost, one cannot expect to experience some total budget shopping in Madrid. However, it is known as one of the most affordable places among the most luxurious shopping venues on Earth. There are several malls around the city, but streets and alleys are usually the destination for its charming shophouses selling souvenirs, textiles, fashion items, and more.

2. Dubai
The city of extremes at the United Arab Emirates is surely a good place for a total shopping spree. Dubai has the world’s largest mall – complete with specialty stores, designer outlets, dancing water fountains, Olympic-sized ice skating rink, theme parks, aquarium, and more.

3. Vienna
If you are looking for the ‘cheapest shopping venue’ based on the European ratings. Basically, luxury items are sold here for cheaper prices compared to other cities in the continent; but it is really the tempting delicacies which are must-buys here. It is especially beautiful to do your shopping in Vienna during Christmas as streets glimmer with Christmas lights on trees and buildings.

4. Buenos Aires
Leather lovers will find exquisite pleasure at the malls of Buenos Aires. Lots of leather shops are established around the city, making it easy for everyone to find nice items. Tailoring is also done in the area. But the better thing is haggling is permitted.

5. Hong Kong
The exciting atmosphere of Hong Kong is very conducive to an ultimate shopping spree. People are generally attracted not just to the various items sold on each boutique; but also to the impressive surroundings of Hong Kong’s shopping streets, which are usually dominated by neon lights.

6. Paris
When we talk about shopping, Paris is definitely the first thing to come to mind. Home to flagship stores of different luxury brands, people will definitely find it truly amazing to shop until they drop while getting astonished with the beautiful surroundings of the city. Of course, the Eiffel Tower is the main attraction.

7. Seoul
The vibrant ambiance in the shopping streets of Seoul sure attracts many. Specialty stores and malls stand side by side, providing people with various options on where they can shop. But if you want to shop while experiencing real Seoul, go to Myeongdong and Dongdaemun. For more upscale shopping, head off to Apgujeongdong or Chungdamdong in Gangnam.

8. Tokyo
Home to the most unique fashion, Tokyo is often visited by shoppers who wish to keep up with the trend. Shops are everywhere, particularly in the Shibuya, Shinjuku and Ginza areas. If you wish to shop for gadgets and anime stuffs, you can visit Akihabara. A typical Tokyo tour package would include stops to shopping venues.

9. New York
There is no better place to shop in the United States of America than the Big Apple, New York. Particularly concentrated in Manhattan are lots of designer stores where great signature items are sold.

10. Manila
Manila is much more than a crowded capital city of the Philippines especially when it comes to shopping. Two of the largest malls in Asia are in the city. Both gives home to local and international specialty stores. If going for budget shopping, it is advisable to visit Tutuban or Divisoria for really cheap items.

Online Shopping is today the most convenient and exciting way of shopping. It caters to every income group and therefore has a wide customer base. It allows customers to buy goods and services from sellers or merchants using the internet. Many people find this the most relaxed form of shopping, more so from the convenience of their home. It also has its advantages and disadvantages, that should be kept in mind to make shopping a pleasure.

Online Shopping lets you to shop from your home. You can relax before your computer or laptop and browse from various shopping portals. Some advantages include the following:

You do not need to get dressed and ready yourself and the family for driving down to the shopping mall. Neither do you need to walk from shop to shop exploring variety of products.

Facilitates ease of comparison of products and prices. Online business owners therefore, price their products competitively as pricing plays a major decisive factor for customer decisions. Reviews that are available online will also give you an insight on the products you want to buy.

You get a wide range of merchandise at these shopping sites, unlike the availability of certain brand or limited categories in physical stores.

You do not have to listen to unwanted sales talk. Usually the salesman at any store tries to push products where they generate more margins. They tend to influence the customer decisions. You may also end up buying things which was not in your buying list! Online shopping, will prevent you from impulsive shopping.

You can be away from the crowd and do not need to stand in queues at the cashiers counter.

Discuss with the family before finalising your product purchase. This kind of comfort zone works very well as likes and dislikes are sorted out within the family before a purchase order is placed.

No need to take urgent decisions. As online shopping works 24 x 7, there is no need to rush through your purchase, unlike in stores where they have fixed time of operations.

Purchasing certain items at stores can be embarrassing and create awkward situations in the presence of curious onlookers.

Easy payment modes. Some shopping sites offer free delivery and even payment on delivery. Information products like e-books can be downloaded on immediate payment.

Most shopping portals offer discounts, special offers, deals of the day, and even festive offers on various occasions. They also offer a replacement policy at no extra cost. A wide variety of products like apparels, jewelry, computers, electronic gadgets and accessories, health and beauty products, toys and several others are easily available for your shopping pleasure.

While on the subject, it must be kept in mind that there are some disadvantages when you are shopping online. They are, to mention a few:

The quality of the product cannot be judged merely on the basis of a single photograph, as they can be deceptive.

You have to wait for the delivery of your items which you could otherwise pick up from a store instantly.

Unreliable shopping sites can sell off inferior products, which you may not be able to replace.

Are you a website owner or a web designer/developer? If either applies, I would venture to say that eventually you’ll need an online shopping cart for one of your websites. In fact, almost all new websites today need some sort of ecommerce built-in, for the purpose of selling goods and services in the online marketplace.

The greatest challenge is to find the perfect ecommerce shopping cart solution for yourself and/or your client. This task can be very overwhelming, considering, if you type ‘shopping cart’ into Google.com, this search alone returns over 14.4 million hits! Most of us don’t have the time to sift through more than a few pages of a search engine to find what we’re looking for.

For the last 3 months, much of my time has been devoted to researching as much shopping cart technology as I could get my hands on. In general, shopping cart software ranges in price from free to over $2000 for a single license and web hosted carts range from $5 to hundreds of dollars per month. The studied carts cover the spectrum of all web programming languages (ASP, ASP.NET, Cold Fusion, Flash, Java, JavaScript & Perl shopping carts) and provide limitless features as a whole. The problem is that locating YOUR perfect cart with YOUR specific features can be a big task.

But no fear, just follow this guaranteed step-by-step guide to locate it:

The Top 10 Steps to Finding the Best Online Shopping Cart

Cost

How much money do you have to spend on an internet shopping cart? The nice advantage is that there are shopping carts with hundreds of features and they don’t cost you a dime. They are generally open source products. The only problem is that these same “free shopping carts” can take hours of installation time and be fairly difficult to configure. For a monthly fee, web hosting shopping carts are made for users with little programming experience and allows them to have an online storefront presence in no time.

Hosting vs. Software

There are two options in selecting your overall shopping cart solution. Either you get shopping cart software, download it, install it on your web server, then configure the shopping cart OR you get an online storefront (aka a hosted shopping cart) where the configuration is very basic and the required setup time is minimal. If you have some programming skills, I recommend buying a script and installing it on your own. The nice thing is that you pay a one-time fee for shopping cart software and the license is good for a lifetime. It’s approximately the same price to have a hosted solution for a year compared to most one time shopping cart license fees.

Supported Gateways

What do I mean by gateways? Gateways give shopping carts the ability to connect and securely process credit card orders in real-time. Not all shopping carts are created equal. Make sure that your client’s merchant account is supported by the cart you select. I have found that almost all carts support the larger online payment processing companies, such as Authorize.net, PayPal and Verisign.

Shipping Options

Will you be shipping physical products? If so, there are shopping carts that have built-in real-time shipping options through DHL, UPS And USPS. Often times, the cart gives the user the ability to view tracking orders and order status all from within your secure shopping cart web interface. Also, there are shopping carts with options to ship digital goods as well (files, programs, pictures, music and others).

Technical Support

What kind of technical support does your shopping cart offer? If you choose to purchase a script, be sure to also subscribe to the shopping cart creator’s newsletter, so that you can stay on top of future updates to the software. Be aware that technical support is generally available on a pay-per-incident basis, as a yearly fee or in the rare case, free. Be sure to know what kind of customer support guarantee the shopping cart comes with.

Security

Please, only buy a shopping cart if it supports SSL (secure socket layer), with 128-bit encryption. As an online storefront, remember that you are responsible for the safe transfer of sensitive information (credit card and bank account information) that is processed through your store. If any of the sensitive information is accessible (stolen) from your website, you could be liable. Be sure that you’re purchasing a secure shopping cart solution. Ask the creator’s of the shopping cart what they do specifically to protect the secure transfer of sensitive information.

Style Compatibility

Can you customize your shopping cart to look like your website? There needs to be a seamless transition between your website and your shopping storefront or your customers might get hesitant in purchasing your products. There should be similar colors and style layout to look professional and believable.